• 21 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 22nd, 2023

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  • American House with an EV, all electric, and no solar, I use about 1200 kWh/mo (1.2 MWh/mo) on average. This could only carry me through about 3y. Even if I had access to good public infrastructure I think best I could do is 6y (again, all-electric home).

    But I digress. Lithium ion as purely load shifting is a pretty reasonable, I’d argue critical, solution for covering day/night loads, but starts to fall apart completely when it comes to seasonal (summer/winter) loads.

    But what makes this plant interesting is the addition of super capacitors. The combo battery/SC plant is less about day/night load shifting and more about providing stability to a shifting grid. As supply and demand grow increasingly decoupled, and we try and shift away from expensive peaker plants always on standby, systems like this can dramatically help smooth grid performance.

    ~90 MW of peaker capacity is small potatoes currently, but this is a big step towards a more reliable grid future.











  • What’s the alternative, let the red states gerrymander and then just hope and pray that our new Republican-run house does the right thing and outlaws their one advantage in governing?

    Newsom isn’t doing this in a vacuum, California has had a really well liked nonpartisan districting committee. Texas and other red States have gone with the nuclear option and CA is responding in kind - even more importantly, this is something that has to be voted on by the residents of CA in a special election, rather than by a set of politicians already benefitting from gerrymandering.

    I absolutely hate that it has to be done, but as a CA resident I will be voting for it, and I will be pressuring my elected representatives to work towards passing federal legislation outlawing the practice and bringing things to a more even playing field.

    The do-nothing alternative is not an option.